It’s blurred vision in bid for virtual court

Virtual court at the Supreme Court in Nairobi. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

In 2010, the Judiciary attempted to go virtual. A decade later, the vision of virtual courts is seemingly blurred. 

At the Supreme Court building, room 48, there is evidence of what would see Kenyans and lawyers interact with judges via a video link.

In fact, at the time of the launch, in October 2010, several cases from Mombasa were determined by Appeal Court judges in Nairobi in the same room, online. 

“Virtual courts will enable litigants appear before a judge via video conference without having to appear in person,” said former Chief Justice Evan Gicheru during the launch. The project was to start at the Court of Appeal and spread to other courts. 

On the first floor of the Supreme Court building, on the left wing, there is a room with some 51 inch televisions. 

Manually transcribed

There are also some servers which would connect the courts countrywide.  

Cameras, a computer and some wiring are evidence of the grand project of the former CJ. 

But this was just a dream, a good dream that refuses to become a reality. 

Today, the room serves a different purpose. 

Justice (rtd) Phillip Waki was at the heart of this project which saw the Judiciary host a delegation from the Israel Supreme Court which successfully runs a virtual court. 

Waki then said the Judiciary would digitise courts in months. 

The Covid-19 outbreak throws us back to memories of missing link in courts going virtual. 

Justice David Maraga last week directed suspension of some legal services to avert spread of the virus. He said there will be no open courts and few judges and magistrates will hear cases, in their chambers. 

He too is for going digital and the idea is running in commercial courts. However, they are so far just filing and recording proceedings manually transcribed. 

And for some courts, sending soft copy of the documents through designated emails is how far internet use has gone. 

During former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga’s tenure virtual courts dream was accelerated. Former Chief Registrar Gladys Boss Shollei was steering the project wheel. 

The Appeals Court have only the audio system -two speakers and microphones in each room. 

At the commercial court, there were stenographers which would transcribe in real time all that is said in court sessions. However, the machines were shelved on allegation that lawyers would confuse them with their English. 

Dr Mutunga also established Integrated Court Management System Committee (ICMS) on October 10, 2014 as a standing committee. Its primary objective was to midwife the process of actualising an efficient and effective Court Management System through ICT and advice on best ICT practices.

However, in Milimani courts there are flat screens installed but they are off. There are others which have state of the art cameras and some stenographers but these too are not in use. 

Delayed dream

In 2016, the Division recorded a total of 255 court sessions and 1,800 proceedings produced using the system. 

Proceedings in this period were ready for use in appeals within 3 weeks.

Among those who interacted with the virtual court is Law Society of Kenya President Nelson Havi. 

He told Saturday Standard that he battled with lawyers from Mombasa while in Nairobi and judges settled the dispute in an online session. 

According to Mr Havi, the digitisation of the Judiciary has stalled not been embraced simply because of men and women who want to maintain the old order for their benefit. He says, technology is hard to cheat as footprints are left whenever it is tampered with. 

“Those opposed to diligence actually are behind the project stalling. The project was under Shollei and among the issues that followed her exit was the ICT project. I actually appeared in one virtual court where us and lawyers from Mombasa submitted their cases virtually,” said Havi.

Justice Maraga, during status of the judiciary launch in January blamed delay of the ICT dream on budget cuts by the Treasury.

He explained that allocation of Sh400 million to ICT was scrapped off.

The CJ regretted that the Judiciary is among the few Government institutions whose operations are still manual, a factor he blamed for disappearance of documents.

“KPLC sends us bills through SMS. If I want to file returns I sit in my house and send. That is not the case to the Judiciary. We have files disappearing. You will see how difficult it is. I therefore urge the concerned institutions, especially Parliament and the National Treasury, to ensure a fairer balance in the allocation of the limited resources,” he said.